Full bus depot electrification for Arriva’s Croydon hub
ADDCharge installed 100 EV chargers and delivered 6MW of power infrastructure at Arriva’s Croydon bus depot, electrifying 95 per cent of the site in a single phase for Zenobe in 26 weeks.
| Client | Zenobe / Arriva |
| Location | Cardiff, Wales |
| Sector | Bus & Coaches |
| Value | ~£1.95m |
| Duration | 26 weeks on site; approximately 8 months inception to handover |
| Scope | Principal contractor – electrical engineering, civil works, structural steel mezzanine, project management |
Most bus depot electrification projects are delivered in stages – one or two routes at a time, spread across an extended time period. Croydon was different. Arriva made the decision to electrify the whole site in one go. It was an unusual commission, and it needed a principal contractor with the experience to manage it.
ADDCharge delivered the full project as principal contractor for Zenobe – from the point of grid connection through to commissioned charger.
The project
ADDCharge managed the installation across 95 per cent of a working depot simultaneously – coordinating the build around live bus operations for the full 26 weeks, and keeping the programme moving through the unplanned events that come with any live site.
Arriva subsequently concluded that the staged, route-by-route approach remains the right model for most sites. Croydon stands as the benchmark for what whole-depot electrification demands.
How we delivered it
ADDCharge was involved from the early design stage, working alongside Zenobe’s technical team to contribute to the depot layout – advising on charger placement, cable routes, and sequencing to maximise the number of charge points while keeping bus movements viable throughout the build.
From the point of grid connection, ADDCharge delivered all electrical engineering and installation, the civil works, the structural steel mezzanine, and the full project management. Zenobe supplied the chargers – fitted with proprietary software that manages the charge level of each bus based on its route requirements, drawing only what is needed from the site’s 6MW supply across the full fleet.
The project was commissioned on programme.
Key Project Stats
100 EV chargers installed
~£1.95m Project value
6MW Site power infrastructure
26 Weeks on site
95% Depot electrified in one phase
~8 months Inception to handover
What ADDCharge delivered
Electrical engineering and HV/LV installation
Civil engineering and groundworks
Charger installation (Zenobe-supplied units)
Depot layout design input and pre-construction advisory
Full project management, sequencing, and live-site coordination
Principal contractor and CDM management
“Croydon was a project that tested every part of what we do. Managing an installation of that scale across a working depot, all at once, requires a level of planning and coordination that you only develop through experience. We delivered it on programme and it is now recognised as a benchmark for how this type of project should be done.”
Ray Adde,
Director, ADDCharge